siren

nounverbadjectivecommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈsaɪəɹən//
United States//ˈsaɪɹən//

One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.

noun

1
One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.
Now give ear to what I'm about to say to you, / and a god himself will bring it before your mind. / First, you will come to the Sirens. / These beings enthrall all men who arrive before them. […]
2
One who sings sweetly and charms.
3
A dangerously seductive woman.
4
A member of Sirenia, an order of mammals.
5
A member of a genus of aquatic salamanders of the family Sirenidae, commonly used for all species in the family Sirenidae.
6
Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Hestina.
7
A device, either mechanical or electronic, that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device.
My attention was diverted from this sight by a furious yelling, like that of the thing called a siren in our manufacturing towns.
1984, Steve Harris, "Aces High", Iron Maiden, Powerslave. There goes the siren that warns of the air raid / Then comes the sound of the guns sending flak / Out for the scramble we've got to get airborne / Got to get up for the coming attack.
8
A musical instrument, one of the few aerophones in the percussion section of the symphony orchestra (patented as Acme Siren in 1895).
9
An instrument for demonstrating the laws of beats and combination tones.
10
An astrophysical event that can be used for calculating cosmic distances.
[object Object]

Etymology

From Middle English siren, from Old French sereine and Latin Sīrēn, Sīrēna, from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn). The mammalian sense was first attested in French in Dominique Bouhours, Les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène, in 1671. The aquatic salamander sense was originally introduced by Linnaeus in 1766, for a genus of his reptiles.

verb

1
To make a noise with, or as if with, a siren.
2
To drive with a siren on.

adjective

1
Relating to or like a siren.

Forms

plural: sirens, sirenes
past tense: sirened
past participle: sirened
present participle: sirening
third person singular: sirens

sir · A man of a higher rank or position.Sir · The titular prefix given to a knight or baronet.sire · A lord, master, or other person in authority, most commonly…

siren · One of a group of nymphs who lured mariners to their death on the rocks.

Siren · A village, the county seat of Burnett County, Wisconsin,…sissy · An effeminate boy or man.Sissy · A diminutive of the female given name Cecilia.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.